Barcelona are reportedly unable to sign any more players from Liverpool for the next two years following the Philippe Coutinho transfer last season.
The Brazil international moved from Anfield to the Nou Camp in January, and it’s now being claimed that the two clubs struck another agreement in the wake of that deal.
BREAKING: Barcelona WILL NOT be able to buy a Liverpool player for the next TWO years. It’s a clause that Liverpool included between them and Barcelona when they sold Philippe Coutinho to the Spanish club. [@La_SER] pic.twitter.com/pFy4up7e9n
— LFC Transfer Room (@LFCTransferRoom) November 20, 2018
Cadena Ser, with translation from Twitter account LFC Transfer Room, states that an agreement was made at the time that Barcelona could not sign players from Liverpool for three years after bringing in Coutinho.
Of course, that is now almost down to two years, but it’s quite an extraordinary revelation and perhaps an insight into how transfer negotiations work.
It is not clear quite how common something like this is, but it makes sense for the Reds to try for it given they’ve lost so many of their best players to Barca in recent times.
Luis Suarez and Javier Mascherano also moved from Merseyside to Catalunya at the height of their careers, so LFC will be glad to know they’ve got Mohamed Salah and others relatively safe – at least from one club – for the time being.
